diff --git a/examples/models/gpt2/gpt2_woq.py b/examples/models/gpt2/gpt2_woq.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0539f45
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/models/gpt2/gpt2_woq.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# from xturing.datasets.instruction_dataset import InstructionDataset
+from xturing.models import BaseModel
+
+# Initializes the model: Quantize model with weight only algorithms and
+# replace the linear with itrex's qbits_linear kernel
+model = BaseModel.create("gpt2_int8")
+
+# Once the model has been quantized, you can do inferences directly
+output = model.generate(texts=["Why LLM models are becoming so important?"])
+print(output)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/examples/models/llama2/llama2_woq.py b/examples/models/llama2/llama2_woq.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6cda94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/models/llama2/llama2_woq.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# from xturing.datasets.instruction_dataset import InstructionDataset
+from xturing.models import BaseModel
+
+# Initializes the model: Quantize model with weight only algorithms and
+# replace the linear with itrex's qbits_linear kernel
+model = BaseModel.create("llama2_int8")
+
+# Once the model has been quantized, you can do inferences directly
+output = model.generate(texts=["Why LLM models are becoming so important?"])
+print(output)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/xturing/config/__init__.py b/src/xturing/config/__init__.py
index 56820fb..c925602 100644
--- a/src/xturing/config/__init__.py
+++ b/src/xturing/config/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 import torch
 
 from xturing.utils.interactive import is_interactive_execution
+from xturing.utils.logging import configure_logger
+from xturing.utils.utils import assert_install_itrex
+
+logger = configure_logger(__name__)
 
 # check if cuda is available, if not use cpu and throw warning
 DEFAULT_DEVICE = torch.device("cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu")
@@ -8,8 +12,12 @@
 IS_INTERACTIVE = is_interactive_execution()
 
 if DEFAULT_DEVICE.type == "cpu":
-    print("WARNING: CUDA is not available, using CPU instead, can be very slow")
+    logger.warning("WARNING: CUDA is not available, using CPU instead, can be very slow")
 
 
 def assert_not_cpu_int8():
     assert DEFAULT_DEVICE.type != "cpu", "Int8 models are not supported on CPU"
+
+def assert_cpu_int8_on_itrex():
+    if DEFAULT_DEVICE.type == "cpu":
+        assert_install_itrex()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/xturing/engines/causal.py b/src/xturing/engines/causal.py
index 64d068e..8f6b7e8 100644
--- a/src/xturing/engines/causal.py
+++ b/src/xturing/engines/causal.py
@@ -19,9 +19,13 @@
 )
 from xturing.engines.quant_utils.peft_utils import LoraConfig as peftLoraConfig
 from xturing.engines.quant_utils.peft_utils import prepare_model_for_kbit_training
+from xturing.utils.logging import configure_logger
 from xturing.utils.loss_fns import CrossEntropyLoss
+from xturing.utils.utils import assert_install_itrex
 
 
+logger = configure_logger(__name__)
+
 class CausalEngine(BaseEngine):
     def __init__(
         self,
@@ -60,18 +64,34 @@ def __init__(
             self.tokenizer = tokenizer
         elif model_name is not None:
             if load_8bit:
-                device_map = {"": int(os.environ.get("LOCAL_RANK") or 0)}
-                self.model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
-                    model_name,
-                    torch_dtype=DEFAULT_DTYPE,
-                    load_in_8bit=True,
-                    device_map=device_map,
-                    trust_remote_code=trust_remote_code,
-                    **kwargs,
-                )
-                for param in self.model.parameters():
-                    param.data = param.data.contiguous()
-                self.model = prepare_model_for_int8_training(self.model)
+                use_itrex = DEFAULT_DEVICE.type == "cpu"
+                if use_itrex:
+                    logger.info("CUDA is not available, using CPU instead, running the model with itrex.")
+                    assert_install_itrex()
+                    # quantize model with weight-only quantization
+                    from intel_extension_for_transformers.transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM as ItrexAutoModelForCausalLM
+                    from intel_extension_for_transformers.transformers import WeightOnlyQuantConfig
+                    woq_config = WeightOnlyQuantConfig(weight_dtype='int8')
+                    self.model = ItrexAutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
+                        model_name,
+                        quantization_config=woq_config,
+                        trust_remote_code=trust_remote_code,
+                        use_llm_runtime=False,
+                        **kwargs)
+                    logger.info("Loaded int8 model from Itrex.")
+                else:
+                    device_map = {"": int(os.environ.get("LOCAL_RANK") or 0)}
+                    self.model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
+                        model_name,
+                        torch_dtype=DEFAULT_DTYPE,
+                        load_in_8bit=True,
+                        device_map=device_map,
+                        trust_remote_code=trust_remote_code,
+                        **kwargs,
+                    )
+                    for param in self.model.parameters():
+                        param.data = param.data.contiguous()
+                    self.model = prepare_model_for_int8_training(self.model)
             else:
                 self.model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
                     model_name,
diff --git a/src/xturing/models/causal.py b/src/xturing/models/causal.py
index 62bb274..ca085ff 100644
--- a/src/xturing/models/causal.py
+++ b/src/xturing/models/causal.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from tqdm import tqdm
 from transformers import BatchEncoding
 
-from xturing.config import DEFAULT_DEVICE, assert_not_cpu_int8
+from xturing.config import DEFAULT_DEVICE, assert_not_cpu_int8, assert_cpu_int8_on_itrex
 from xturing.config.config_data_classes import FinetuningConfig, GenerationConfig
 from xturing.config.read_config import load_config
 from xturing.datasets.instruction_dataset import InstructionDataset
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ def __init__(
         model_name: Optional[str] = None,
         **kwargs,
     ):
-        assert_not_cpu_int8()
+        assert_cpu_int8_on_itrex()
         super().__init__(
             engine,
             weights_path=weights_path,
diff --git a/src/xturing/utils/utils.py b/src/xturing/utils/utils.py
index a1bc22a..c8af938 100644
--- a/src/xturing/utils/utils.py
+++ b/src/xturing/utils/utils.py
@@ -150,3 +150,32 @@ def _index_samples(samples: List[Any], logger: logging.Logger):
     logger.info(f"Evaluating {len(indices)} samples")
     work_items = [(samples[i], i) for i in indices]
     return work_items
+
+
+def is_itrex_available():
+    """
+    Check the availability of 'intel_extension_for_transformers' as an optional dependency.
+
+    Returns:
+        bool: True if 'intel_extension_for_transformers' is available, False otherwise.
+
+    Raises:
+        subprocess.CalledProcessError: If the pip installation process fails.
+    """
+    import importlib
+    if importlib.util.find_spec("intel_extension_for_transformers") is not None:
+        return True
+    else:
+        try:
+            import subprocess
+            import sys
+            subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, "-m", "pip", "install", "intel-extension-for-transformers"])
+            return importlib.util.find_spec("intel_extension_for_transformers") is not None
+        except:
+            return False
+
+def assert_install_itrex():
+    assert is_itrex_available(), (
+        "To run int8 or k-bits model on cpu, please install the `intel-extension-for-transformers` package."
+        "You can install it with `pip install intel-extension-for-transformers`."
+        )
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/xturing/models/test_gpt2_model.py b/tests/xturing/models/test_gpt2_model.py
index 3ad29d2..d79fd82 100644
--- a/tests/xturing/models/test_gpt2_model.py
+++ b/tests/xturing/models/test_gpt2_model.py
@@ -101,3 +101,35 @@ def test_saving_loading_model_lora():
 
     model2 = BaseModel.load(str(saving_path))
     model2.generate(texts=["Why are the LLM so important?"])
+
+
+import os
+
+def disable_cuda(func):
+    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
+        # Save the current value of CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES
+        original_cuda_visible_devices = os.environ.get('CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES', None)
+        # Set CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES to -1 to disable CUDA
+        os.environ['CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES'] = '-1'
+        try:
+            # Call the decorated function
+            return func(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as e:
+            # Handle exceptions here
+            print(f"An error occurred: {e}")
+        finally:
+            # Restore the original value of CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES
+            if original_cuda_visible_devices is not None:
+                os.environ['CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES'] = original_cuda_visible_devices
+            else:
+                # If CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES was not set before, remove it from the environment
+                if 'CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES' in os.environ:
+                    del os.environ['CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES']
+
+    return wrapper
+
+@disable_cuda
+def test_gpt2_int8_woq_cpu():
+    # test quantize gpt2 with itrex
+    other_model = BaseModel.create("gpt2_int8")
+    assert other_model.generate(texts="I want to") != ""
\ No newline at end of file